Jaffa Cake: biscuit or cake?

It turns out a legal ruling wasn't enough to end the great Jaffa Cake debate. So once and for all let's settle this fight: is it a biscuit or a cake?

A cake? A biscuit? Which one will it be? Photograph: Frank Baron

A cake? A biscuit? Which one will it be? Photograph: Frank Baron

Published on Mon 8 Jun 2009 11.00 EDT

From our You tell us thread, it turns out that what the readers of Comment is free really want to debate is not the European elections or the global economic crisis, but baked goods, specifically the infamous question: is a Jaffa Cake a biscuit or a cake?

Any innocent mention of the chocolate-covered treat proves to be enough to spark a vicious debate, it seems, with readers arguing the specifics of "the rule" – the 11th commandment – which states that over time biscuits go soft and cakes go hard. An argument dismissed by Fencewalker, who says: "They come in a packet. I don't care about all that hard/soft nonsense – that's what The Man says. Hard-working taxpayers know better."

Unfortunately Cif is unable to replicate McVities' winning evidence when the company convinced the VAT man of the Jaffa cake's inherent cakiness by baking a 12-inch version. So instead we propose a cake v biscuit deathmatch.

The bell has rung, let the fight begin. Once and for all, let's settle this: is the humble Jaffa Cake a biscuit or a cake?